Derailed

In a not totally unexpected development, the auto bailout got nowhere in the Senate...

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday night abandoned efforts to fashion a government rescue of the American automobile industry, as Senate Republicans refused to support a bill endorsed by the White House and Congressional Democrats.

The failure to reach agreement on Capitol Hill raised a specter of financial collapse for General Motors and Chrysler, which say they may not be able to survive through this month.

After Senate Republicans balked at supporting a $14 billion auto rescue plan approved by the House on Wednesday, negotiators worked late into Thursday evening to broker a deal but deadlocked over Republican demands for steep cuts in pay and benefits by the United Automobile Workers union in 2009...

"It's over with," the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said on the Senate floor, after it was clear that a deal could not be reached. "I dread looking at Wall Street tomorrow. It's not going to be a pleasant sight."

Mr. Reid added: "This is going to be a very, very bad Christmas for a lot of people as a result of what takes place here tonight."

I'm not an economist so maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand why the government backed truckloads of money up to Wall Street and told the bozos who screwed the economy up so royally to just help themselves. Spend it however you want. Don't worry about it; we'll just print more. Then you have companies that actually make something, and that employ millions of blue-collar workers, and they are told, "Quit bleeding and we'll give you a band-aid."